"...I was sloppy..."?!?
"I deeply regret the sloppiness involved..." ?????
Posted July 20, 2004 by Michael A. Morrow
As an aerospace engineer, I'm more than passingly familiar with classified document handling.
As a matter of fact, I can not COUNT the number of times I've heard the phrase
"$100,000 fine and Ten Years In Prison
for every offense"
during security briefings.
When I first heard
THIS report from FOX NEWS
of actions taken by Sandy Berger, Former President Clinton's National Security Advisor, I was truly stunned !
"Former President Clinton's national security adviser is under criminal investigation for taking highly classified terrorism documents that should have been turned over to the independent commission probing the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, FOX News has confirmed."
Well, no big deal, right? I mean, after all, they probably weren't THAT important were they?
"However, some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of Al Qaeda terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration are still missing, officials and lawyers said.
Officials said the missing documents also identified America's terror vulnerabilities at airports to seaports."
(emphasis mine - and I'm sure the author meant "... and seaports.")
Oh my. I guess maybe they were important after all.
But WAIT ! It gets even BETTER ....
"Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed the handwritten notes by placing them in his jacket, pants and socks, ...."
There must have been a LOT of notes to have to resort to stock-stuffing. Or maybe he just got confused, and thought he was filling Christmas stockings hanging from the mantle. Yea! That's it - he's just old and confused, and thought he was doing Christmas stockings.
"... and also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio."
What? He ran out of room in his shorts and socks?
hmmmm ... what're we up to now? $200,000 and 20 years in prison?
I personally know of people who were FIRED for making real mistakes while TRYING to follow the rules. This guy was the friggin' NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, and he was stuffing documents in his shorts and socks???
Never mind the fact that the documents that are now MISSING would have made Former President Clinton look REALLY, REALLY BAD if they had been seen by the incredibly inept, lazy, ineffective, and completely partisan 9/11 Commission, of which, the entire reason for existence appears to be covering Clinton's sorry butt.
Whataya mean I'm "just blaming Clinton"?
"Officials said Archive staff specially marked the documents and when the new copy and others disappeared,
Archive officials called Clinton attorney Bruce Lindsey." (emphasis mine)
"Archive Officials called Clinton attorney Bruce Lindsey"??????
WHY?
WHO THE #$&% DO THEY THINK THEY WORK FOR???
THEY SHOULD BE FIRED.
ON. THE. SPOT.
NOW.
And prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Anyone who calls someone other than the FBI or the Defense Intelligence Agency after finding out about something like this DOES NOT BELONG WORKING WITH/ON CLASSIFIED MATERIAL.
Thousands of honest, hard-working citizens have to follow rigorous classified document handling rules on a daily basis for fear of not just personal penalties, but also of critical classified information falling into enemy hands.
IF the rules governing document handling mean ANYTHING AT ALL, Berger should spend the rest of his life in prison, and those who helped his actions by not reporting them immediately, should also go to prison.
Anything less would make those rules meaningless.
UPDATE: - Breaking now on Drudge:
Clinton says: "WE WERE ALL LAUGHING ABOUT IT"
Yea? I'll bet people who've been fired for rule infractions don't think it's so funny. And if it turns out you had something to do with it, maybe a few years in a federal penitentiary would be a "non-story" for you too.
|